


Prodigal Son

by HoodedAndromeda



Category: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Movies)
Genre: Anger, Angst, Anxiety, Close Sibling Relationships, Deep Conversations, F/M, Fear, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Grief, Hurt feelings, Mourning, Strained Relationships, Strained family relationships, long talks, sibling relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25532455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HoodedAndromeda/pseuds/HoodedAndromeda
Summary: Bobby vanishes for close to three days after a particularly bad fight with Drayton. Even after Bobby finally comes home, Nubbins can't help but be put-out with his twin for not telling him when--or if--he'd be back.
Relationships: Grandpa Sawyer/Grandma Sawyer, Robert "Chop Top" Sawyer/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Prodigal Son

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the writing prompt "Disappearing Act"

Usually if Nubbins was pissed off at one of his brothers, it was Drayton. Nubbins, Bobby, and Bubba had always been pretty close. They fought, sure, but it was usually about petty shit. And even when it wasn’t petty, they were able to move on within a few hours. They couldn’t afford to not get along most of the time anyway. They spent most of their days getting ragged on by Drayton, their coworkers, and complete strangers. They didn’t need to keep that shitty-ass party going when it was just the three of them. So, it was weird that right now Nubbins was pissed at Bobby, of all people. What was weirder was that he’d been pissed at him for almost three straight days.

Bobby wasn’t the type to disappear. Sometimes he’d sneak out, or he’d drop Nubbins and Bubba at home after work and go off and do something by himself. And up until recently, maybe the past nine months or so, Bobby would tell Nubbins where he was going about ninety-five percent of the time. And when he didn’t say where he was headed, it never really mattered since he was always home by sunrise. But that wasn’t what had happened this time around.

Nubbins knew that Bobby had his own friends, people he hung out with who Nubbins didn’t know too well (or at all). And he knew that Bobby went and saw girls a lot. As soon as he’d gotten his own truck he’d started dating. None of that bothered Nubbins. But Bobby had still always put his family first, and he’d never gone off someplace when his brothers needed him around. Nubbins was starting to wonder who was so damn important that Bobby would just straight-up vanish for three days and two nights without telling him or Bubba what was up.

He didn’t want to be mad at Bobby. Nubbins understood why he needed to leave the house. Everyone had been off since Grandma died last week. They were all dealing with it differently. And the way Drayton was dealing with it, apparently, was by picking fights. He’d always been that way, making shitty little comments about all three of them, threatening them, cuffing their ears, and even slapping them across the face from time to time. But the fight Drayton and Bobby had gotten into before Bobby took off was unreal. They’d always butted heads the most, so it wasn’t surprising to anyone when Drayton started laying into Bobby about his work ethic. It wasn’t surprising to anyone that he’d talked back, either.

What was surprising, though, was that Drayton grabbed the broom they kept in the kitchen and walloped Bobby with it. He got a hell of a lot of hits in before Bobby managed to wrestle the broom out of his hands and duck out the door. The worst part of it, besides the look on Bobby’s face and the fact that Bubba had immediately started shrieking, was that Grandpa had just watched it all happen.

Didn’t make a peep. Didn’t move a muscle. And Grandpa had always, _always_ stopped Drayton from hitting them, as long as he saw it happen. So Nubbins understood why Bobby had left. Hell, he even understood why he stayed away for a few days. But what he didn’t understand is why Bobby didn’t take him and Bubba with, or tell them where he was going, or call them from wherever he’d gone, or just done anything to let them know if he’d be back.

When Bobby had pulled up this afternoon, Nubbins wasn’t happy. He wasn’t barely even relieved. Bubba had gone racing down the drive and lifted Bobby off his feet in one of his signature bearhugs, and then he hadn’t really left him alone at all the rest of the day. It took Bobby close to an hour just to get Bubba to settle down and stop his crying. That bugged Nubbins, too. Bubba had been a wreck the whole time Bobby was gone. He was lucky that Bobby’d left on a Friday, so he wouldn’t have to drag Bubba to work all by himself when he was as big a mess as he was. Nubbins had been mad when he woke up Saturday morning and Bobby wasn’t back, and he’d been mad this morning when he _still_ wasn’t back. But he didn’t really start fuming until Bobby had walked through the door.

He’d acted like everything was normal, like it was okay. After Bubba had calmed down, Bobby helped him and Nubbins finish up the day’s chores, made himself a sandwich for lunch, then sat in the living room reading a book and listening to music until Drayton came home. They didn’t say two words to each other. Really, Bubba was the only one who did any talking most of the day. After dinner, Drayton, Grandpa, and Nubbins all went up to their rooms while Bobby stayed downstairs with Bubba. He’d been down there for close to two hours now.

Nubbins was sitting cross-legged on his bed, silently working on his latest art project—using some old fishing wire to tie the bones of a possum he’d found dead on the road to a handful of pig bones he’d swiped from work—when he heard Bobby climbing the stairs and coming up the hall. The door creaked open, the mess of necklaces hanging from the knob clattering against the wood.

“Hey,” Bobby said, stepping into the room. Nubbins didn’t reply, keeping his eyes trained on the pig vertebrae he was fastening to the possum skull. “Bubba’s finally asleep,” Bobby sighed, closing the door behind him, “you’d’a thought I been gone a year ‘stead’a two days.” Bobby sat heavily on his bed with a grunt and stretched, his shoulders popping audibly. Nubbins stayed silent.

“What’s goin’ on witchu, man?” Bobby asked, clearly irritated, and Nubbins couldn’t help but bristle at his tone.

“Nothin’.” Nubbins replied flatly, picking up another vertebra and a section of fishing wire. Bobby huffed.

“Don’t gimme that shit, Nubbins,” he snapped, “yer pissed at me. Why?” Nubbins rolled his eyes. “Yer just gonna gimme the cold shoulder, huh? Real fuckin’ mature.”

“Shut up!” Nubbins barked, finally turning to face his twin.

“The fuck is yer problem?” Bobby crossed his arms, leaning forward a little ways as he glared. Nubbins shook his head.

“You c-can’t just, like, fuckin’ _disappear_ fer d-da-days like that!” Bobby scoffed.

“Why not? You do it all the damn time.” Nubbins was taken aback. He didn’t expect Bobby to equate the stunt he’d pulled with his hitchhiking. Those were spontaneous mini-trips. He’d been doing it since he was thirteen. Sure, he never knew when he was leaving, where he was going, or when he was coming back, but the difference was that Bobby knew he’d always come back eventually. …Didn’t he?

“That’s different!” Nubbins said defensively. Bobby clicked his tongue.

“Yeah? How?” Nubbins knew Bobby had him cornered. He couldn’t explain it in a way that didn’t make him sound like an asshole.

“Well, I—it’s—it j-just is!” Nubbins spluttered.

“Yer full’a shit.”

“It’s d-di-different when you leave,” Nubbins spat, scooping up the bones in his lap and setting them gently in an empty shoebox on the floor beside his bed. “You ne’er left fer so long without me or Bubba b’fore. You were just—j-ju-just—just gone!” Nubbins rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands, pressing hard enough that he saw little splotches of color in the darkness behind his eyelids. “You didn’t e’er used ta sn-sneak out an’ not say where you was goin’ or when you’d be b-back. A-an’ then! Then ya go away fer two—three! A-almost three days?” Nubbins swallowed, trying to keep his voice from trembling. Bubba could go ahead and cry all he wanted, but Nubbins wasn’t gonna let anyone except for Grandma see him cry. Not that he had that option anymore. Bobby let out a long, shaky sigh. When Nubbins looked up at him, he was holding his head in his hands, his hair hanging in front of his face.

“I—I couldn’t stay here,” Bobby said hoarsely, “I mean, shit, that was somethin’—I ne’er—I ne’er seen—” he paused, taking four deep breaths, “I had to get outta there.” Bobby lifted his head and Nubbins realized that his eyes were red and puffy, and his cheeks were a little pale, like he’d been doing his fair share of crying the past few days.

“He fuckin’ hates me, man,” Bobby whimpered, and Nubbins suddenly felt stupid for being as angry as he was. He still thought it was wrong of Bobby to just drop off the face of the planet like that. But he hadn’t realized just how hard Bobby had taken Drayton’s beating.

“He’s like that with all’a us.” Nubbins said. The three of them took their licks on the regular… but it was no secret that Drayton had always had it out for Bobby in particular. As far as Nubbins knew, there wasn’t any real reason for it. He talked back to Drayton, too, but the two of them had never come close to having the same kind of screaming matches that Bobby had with Drayton. Bobby shook his head.

“Naw, it’s—it’s different witchu n’ Bubba. You ain’t with ‘im all day. You don’t gotta work with ‘im.” He swallowed. “You get it bad, too, I know. I ain’t sayin ya don’t. It—I’s just like I said, s’all. It’s different.” Bobby never really said anything about how him and Drayton got on. At most he would tell Nubbins and Bubba what a bitch he’d been on any given day. So, Nubbins had never understood just how bothered Bobby was by the way Drayton treated him. And now that he thought about it, if he’d been the one who’d gotten brained with a broomstick, he would’ve left, too.

“He d-don’t hate ya,” Nubbins said quietly. And he knew that was true. Drayton was an asshole, but he’d do anything to protect the family. It was just that, for whatever reason, he couldn’t seem to treat the three of them with much—if any—kindness. It was shitty, but that was just Drayton. That’s how he’d always been. “He ain’t Pa.” Bobby sniffled, then wiped his nose with the back of his arm.

“I know,” Bobby rasped. There was a brief moment of silence between them. “Y’know I was always gonna come back, right? I wouldn’t e’er just leave ya. I wouldn’t do that ta you. Or Bubba.” Nubbins nodded. Despite his anger, and his fear, he knew deep down that he could always trust Bobby. He’d never abandon his family, not ever. Not for anything in the world. There was another moment of silence, this one longer, as Nubbins stared at the floor and Bobby at the ceiling.

“So,” Nubbins finally said, “you, uh, you g-go-gonna tell me where you been?” Bobby shifted awkwardly on his bed, rubbing the back of his neck. “It ain’t some k-kinda big secret, is it?”

“No, but—” Bobby exhaled sharply, “a’ight, look. If I tell ya, you gotta promise me— _promise me_ —you won’t tell a soul.” Bobby looked back at Nubbins, his expression stern. “I mean it, nobody. None’a our friends, not Bubba, not Grandpa, an’ _‘specially_ not Drayton. Ya got me?”

“Cross my heart,” Nubbins replied, tracing a big ‘X’ over his chest with his index finger.

“Okay.” Bobby cleared his throat. “So, uh, I… I met a girl.” That news did not surprise Nubbins in the least. He’d heard about a lot of girls over the past four or five years. He knew Bobby had dated two different girls off and on a little while ago, but it hadn’t been anything serious. What did surprise Nubbins was how bashful Bobby seemed all of a sudden. He’d never been the type to get flustered talking to or about girls.

“Yeah?” Bobby pushed his hair behind his ear.

“Yeah, last September, her name’s Maisie.” So it’d been longer than nine months, then, almost a year. Nubbins was a little put out that he was only just hearing about her now, but he chose to put his bruised feelings aside for the time being.

“Wh-what’s she like?” He asked.

“She’s—fuck, she’s amazing.” Bobby glanced at the door, letting his voice drop to a low whisper, like he was afraid someone might be eavesdropping. Nubbins slid off his bed, sitting on the floor and leaning forward so he could hear better. “She’s the nicest person I e’er met. She’s all bubbly ‘n sweet, but she ain’t no doormat. She could kick the shit outta anybody if she wanted.” Bobby looked down at his hands in his lap, biting his lip.

“She’s real smart, too, she went ta school fer the whole time, an’ she’s in college! She’s gonna teach the fourth grade. I dunno what I did ta get so lucky, man, but she’s so funny an’ she’s got a kickass taste in music, and god _damn_ is she beautiful.” Nubbins had truly never seen Bobby look so happy, especially shortly after being so upset. He couldn’t help but smile at the stupid-looking grin Bobby was trying so hard to suppress.

“So, uh,” Bobby said, “yeah. So, Maisie’s got an apartment with ‘er pal Bonnie, right? An’ that’s where I went… where I been goin’. After me ‘n Drayton got into it, I drove out thataway ta be with ‘er an’ cool down.”

“Gotcha.” Nubbins hesitated. “Did… d-didja tell ‘er what h-happened?”

“Yeah.” Nubbins shifted, readjusting his position so he was sitting with his knees against his chest.

“What’d she do?” Bobby was quiet for a moment. His eyes had gone all shiny, and he started blinking fast to clear the tears away before they fell.

“She was just…” He chuckled weakly, “she was just there fer me. Y’know, patched me up a li’l, talked me through all the shit I was thinkin’ an’ feelin. Stuff like that.”

“She s-so-sounds real nice,” Nubbins said softly. If even half the stuff Bobby was saying was true, Maisie had to be one of the kindest people in Texas. He was happy for Bobby. Nubbins liked girls, but he’d never cared all that much about having a girlfriend. It was just like he didn’t need all that many friends—as long as he had his brothers and his art, he wasn’t really ever lonely. But for as long as he could remember, Bobby had _really_ liked girls. Even if he wasn’t dating them, he just enjoyed talking to and spending time with women. If any of the four of them was going to go out there and get himself a girlfriend, it was Bobby. And it sounded like he’d hit the jackpot with Maisie.

“She is,” Bobby replied.

“You love ‘er?” Bobby’s face flushed, and he looked up at the ceiling again.

“Yeah,” his voice hitched, “yeah, I do.”

“So,” Nubbins said forcefully, breaking free of the hushed tone he’d been using for the past couple minutes, “when can I meet ‘er?” Bobby blinked in surprise.

“You—you wanna meet ‘er?” Nubbins rolled his eyes, pushing himself to his feet.

“Fuckin’ stupid ques—a’course I do, ya d-dumbass!” He walked across the room to turn off the lights but then paused, hand hovering over the switch. “Does... d-does she, uh, does she wanna meet me…?”

“Yeah,” Bobby answered. Nubbins breathed a little sigh of relief as Bobby continued, “she’s actually been on me ‘bout meetin’ ya fer a while.”

“R-really?” Nubbins said brightly, “Okay, s-so, then, what gives? Why h-ha-haven’t I met ‘er yet?” Nubbins turned off the overhead light, leaving the room to only be illuminated by the tangle of Christmas lights taped to the ceiling. Bobby shrugged, beginning to slip off his rings, bracelets, and necklaces and pile them on his bedside table.

“I dunno,” he said heavily, “I guess it was just, like, Gramma was sick fer so long, an’ Bubba doesn’t do so good with new people, an’ Drayton—”

“Sure,” Nubbins cut Bobby off, walking back across the room and letting himself fall onto his bed, “b-but why haven’t _I_ met ‘er?”

“I ain’t got a good reason, Nubbins,” Bobby sighed, “I kinda figured e’eryone would hafta meet ‘er in one go, an’ I didn’t know how that’d work out.” Nubbins shrugged, groping around for the blanket balled up at the foot of his bed.

“It’d pro’bly be fi-fine, Bobby, if she’s as c-cool as you been sayin’ she is.” Nubbins grabbed hold of his blanket and pulled it up to his chest, then rolled onto his side to look at Bobby, who was still sitting up in his bed.

“It ain’t her I’m worried ‘bout, it’s Drayton,” Bobby murmured. In all honesty, Drayton probably wouldn’t do anything to come between Bobby and Maisie. Even he wouldn’t be _that_ much of a dick. But still, there was no predicting Drayton, and there was a possibility that he could decide that Bobby having a girlfriend was bad for the family or something stupid like that. And if that happened, he might do something drastic to keep them from seeing each other—like sell Bobby’s truck. Nubbins didn’t think Drayton would do that. It was more likely that he’d be glad to have a new member of the family, especially one he didn’t have any responsibility to feed. But the risk that he’d do something cruel was still there.

“Alright, look,” Bobby said, finally laying down, “I’m gonna call Maisie when I’m done at work tomorrow, ‘fore I come ta pick you ‘n Bubba up. I’ll fill ‘er in on what happened after I left ‘er place, an’ then I’ll ask her ‘bout settin’ up a time where I can introduce the two a’ya.” Bobby pulled three different blankets over himself, then took his pillow out from under his head and hugged it to his chest. “Sound good?”

“Y-yeah, sure!” Nubbins was immediately nervous and excited at the same time. He never met either of Bobby’s first two girlfriends. And as content as he was to spend time alone or just with his brothers, he had to admit that the idea of potentially having someone new to hang out with on the regular was pretty appealing. And if things were as serious between Maisie and Bobby as they seemed to be, Nubbins might be getting a sister sometime down the line, and _that_ would be cool. He just hoped he made a good first impression. That’d never been his strong suit.

“Sweet,” Bobby said, and although his face was mostly obscured by shadow, Nubbins could hear the smile in his voice. Bobby sat back up, taking a moment to turn on his radio, then settled back into his bed.

“So… are we good?” Bobby asked hesitantly.

“Yeah,” Nubbins said with a yawn, “we’re g-good.”

“You sure?” Nubbins snorted.

“Yeah, man, we’re good.” Nubbins rolled over so his back was to his Bobby. He sighed.

“Okay. G’night, Nubbins,” Bobby mumbled into his pillow.

“’Night, Bobby.”


End file.
